Chapter Text
A blank canvas had never intimidated Freya, not until today. She’d sat in her room for three hours now and had yet to paint a single thing. She sighed, leaned back in her chair and tilted her head up to the ceiling. She was alone in her room which she shared with her brother Coco. With eight siblings, being alone wasn’t a feeling Freya was familiar with. Her whole family had gone to her grandparents house for dinner but Freya had opted to stay home to finish (and start) her painting for her art class. She usually found it so easy to find inspiration, often finishing a painting in one sitting. Lately though she’d had the artist's equivalent of writer's block. This had never happened to Freya in her entire fifteen years of life.
She decided after three hours of doing nothing, she was in need of a break. Hopping down from her chair she looked over at Coco’s clock on his bedside table. 18:33, she suddenly became very aware of how hungry she was. Her father had made some carrot soup for lunch earlier, as Freya made her way downstairs she prayed that there was still some left. Carrot soup was her absolute favourite, after carrot cake of course.
She smiled as she passed her family portrait. A big family of eleven white rabbits with chocolate tipped ears smiled back at her. Other than her big sister Stella, who had moved out some years ago, Freya was the oldest of all her siblings, they looked up to her.
As she heated up the leftover soup she tried to brainstorm some ideas for her painting. She could paint a landscape, some picturesque part of Sylvania, maybe the little lake that she loved to hang out at with her best friends Ralph and Lyra. Maybe she could paint a portrait of her parents. Freya quickly realised that all her ideas were just past paintings she’d already done. She was entirely out of ideas.
She poured the carrot soup into her favourite pink heart shaped bowl and sighed, tilting her head and gazing at the bowl. Maybe she could paint something orange and pink, something abstract perhaps. Orange and pink always go well together, like a pretty sunset.
“That’s it!” Freya cheered excitedly. She raced back upstairs, having completely forgotten about her soup. Reaching her room, she shuffled through her paints to find the perfect colours and set to work.
Around nine O’clock Freya heard creaking behind her, she turned around slowly, feeling nervous about being home alone all of a sudden.
“RAAHH!” Screamed Coco, his arms raised high to look as scary as a little rabbit could. Freya screamed, and then began to giggle. Coco was constantly trying to scare her and almost always was successful, luckily Freya didn’t mind. “You finally figured out what to paint then, Freya?” Coco asked, sitting on his bed (which was the bottom bunk of their bunk bed) and taking his shoes off.
“Luckily yes,” she looked back and smiled at her painting, admiring how beautiful the sunset was, “I had a eureka moment whilst making my soup.” Suddenly her eyes widened as she remembered her now cold soup, “oh no!” She cried, hurrying back downstairs, hoping her parents hadn’t yet chucked the carroty goodness away.
Just as Freya reached the kitchen she saw Teri, her Mum, about to pour the soup down the drain. “Mum, wait!” Freya called out.
“Freya, this soup is cold, it’s no good now.” Her mum looked at her with a soft yet stern look.
“I know, I’ll reheat it, I just forgot about it is all,” Freya moved towards her mother in the kitchen and put on her best pouty face, drooping her bunny ears as low as she could, “Please Mama, I promise I’ll eat it all.” She held her hands together sweetly, her mother completely unable to resist her act.
“Fine, but you eat it down here, not in your room.”
“Okay mum.” Freya smiled as she poured the soup back into the saucepan, slowly heating it. As she stirred the soup she heard the pitter patter of little rabbits hopping past the kitchen, making their way up the stairs and to their beds. “Goodnight Crème, goodnight kabe, goodnight Breeze,” she called out as each of them passed. “Goodnight Philip, Fauna and Flora,” she whispered to the triplets who were already fast asleep in their pram.
As Freya poured the soup back into her bowl and made her way to the table, her mother turned to her and asked, “Did you manage to think of an idea for your painting, Freya?”
“Yep,” replied the little rabbit smiling down at her carrot soup in her pretty pink bowl.